Tensions rise in park land debate

PORT CLINTON – It was standing room only in the Port Clinton City Hall council chambers Tuesday night and tensions were high over a piece of legislation that residents are quite simply confused about.

C.O.R.D. spokesperson Rick Noderer showed copies of the park reservation and event application forms offered by the city in order to rent a pavilion or host an event on park land. He said if the city, more specifically Mayor Vince Leone, were referring to these as leases, the administration was breaking the law.

Noderer referred to an article from last week's Beacon newspaper in which the mayor suggested the Walleye Festival and other events on park property could be jeopardized by the C.O.R.D. ballot initiative and would have to be voted on.

Noderer said the "lease" must be authorized by an ordinance, approved by a two-thirds vote of council and shall be authorized to the highest bidder. Before it can be authorized, it must be advertised once a week for five consecutive weeks in a newspaper within the municipal corporation, according to Ohio Revised Code 721.28.

"It seems to me you have a choice, is the citizens' use of the land for events a lease or is it not?" Noderer asked the mayor. "If it isn't, the proposed (C.O.R.D.) initiative will not affect the citizens' use of the parks at all. What is it, mayor?"

"If you read the article, you would see that I don't know that. I'm not an attorney, I'm not a judge," Leone responded. "I raised questions because I don't know.

"My responsibility to the city is to enforce those ordinances. If I don't quite understand them, I need to have someone explain them to me. I can't enforce something I don't understand. There are parts in the ordinance that I don't understand. That's what I was doing. I proposed questions," Leone said.

Debby Krofft, another member of C.O.R.D., brought the same code Noderer did, saying that neither the Walleye Festival nor the Harvest Festival were ever referred to as leases.

"If I use the city's property for an event, will I now be considered trespassing on city property because the city did not follow the law?" Krofft asked.

"I want to know what the actual proposal for that property is, I want to know what does the proposal say?" Jane Storrs asked council and the audience. Storrs said she had recently been blocked by members of the "Talk of Port Clinton" Facebook group for stating her support for the development of the park, with some of those members using curses, name-calling and accusations in the last several weeks.

"I don't understand why all this name-calling is happening. Is this the way people act because you don't say what they believe or support?" Storrs asked.

"I just heard a gentleman ask multiple times if it's a lease or it isn't a lease. That's what we call 'weasel-wording,' it's vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unaccountable information," she said to the group. "Such statements should be clarified and removed.

"I'm hearing a lot of weasels. All I want is to see a proposal, hear what you're going to do. One minute I hear 119 condos, the next I hear there are 400 and something condos. I don't care how many going condos are going up, as long as they are paying taxes and the city can collect revenue," Storrs said.

"Another question I have is, is about this group called C.O.R.D. How many people are in it, and who are they? I never get an answer." Storrs asked.

Noderer, who was given permission by council President Linda Hartlaub to reply to Storrs' question, replied, "I can sign in next meeting and get back to those questions."